PAYROLL PROBE HAS FAMILY TIE

Stanley Tucker is a typical loyal foot soldier in the 39th Ward Democratic Organization, the kind of precinct captain who can deliver the votes on election day.

And in typical Chicago fashion, Tucker, 47, has been rewarded for his efforts. After being convicted of bribery in 1992, he landed a job for six months on the Chicago City Council's Traffic Committee, then chaired by Tucker's political patron, former Ald. Anthony Laurino (39th).

About a year after Tucker left the committee, he went to work for a North Side community center that received $132,000 in city grants for a program Tucker was hired to direct. The grants were arranged by Laurino and his daughter Margaret Laurino, who succeeded him as alderman.

While such political patronage has been standard in Chicago for years, federal authorities now are scrutinizing the political fiefdom of the former alderman and questioning whether such favors may have broken federal laws. Margaret Laurino is not a subject of the investigation.

The probe is part of a widespread federal investigation that includes not only the Traffic Committee but also the employment practices of two other City Council committees and the Cook County Board of (tax) Appeals.

Three federal grand juries in Chicago are examining allegations of ghost payrolling and how politicians hand out other political rewards to their loyalists.

So far, another of Laurino's daughters, Marie D'Amico, and her husband, John, have pleaded guilty to federal charges for their role in a ghost payrolling scheme. She has been sentenced to one year in prison for receiving more than $80,000 from her ghost payrolling jobs, and he is awaiting sentencing.

Tucker is a member of a politically powerful family in the 39th Ward. His father, Hyman Tucker, was a longtime precinct captain and staffer on Laurino's Traffic Committee.

In 1991, Stanley Tucker, then head of personnel for the Cook County Highway Department, was indicted on official misconduct and bribery charges. He pleaded guilty to bribing a county official to have scores changed on civil service exams and was sentenced to 14 days in jail and one year of partial home confinement.

Days after he completed the 14-day jail term, he took the place of his father on the Traffic Committee payroll and was paid $2,578 a month as an investigator until he left in November 1992.

In December 1993, he applied for a job with the Albany Park Community Center. He was hired as a director of a new housing program to find affordable housing for the center's impoverished clientele.

The community center at 3403 W. Lawrence Ave. is widely respected for its outreach programs to help low- and moderate-income residents with child care, housing and health care, according to a spokesman for the city's Department of Housing. The agency, which is not under investigation, will spend about $2.5 million this year, with the bulk of the funds coming from federal and state grants, said Frank Albanese, the executive director.

Before joining the City Council in August 1994, Margaret Laurino was chairman of the Board of Directors at the center. Her husband, Randy Barnette, was hired in November 1993 as a fundraiser.

According to city officials, Anthony Laurino interceded on the agency's behalf to win $66,000 to fund the affordable housing project in 1993.

He came to the project's rescue after an advisory committee and the city's Department of Housing had rejected the center's grant proposal. It had sought $66,000 to fund the affordable housing project with federal community development block grant funds, records show.

When the city's community development fund budget came up for approval before the City Council in November 1993, the former alderman amended it to include funding for the Albany Park project. Within weeks, Stanley Tucker was hired by the center to be the director of the program at $35,000 a year.

When funding for the project came up in 1994 for the second year of the project, Housing Department officials said the center's application for funding had been submitted to the wrong city agency. The Housing Department had not included the funding in the community development fund budget it submitted to the City Council.

With the $66,000 in jeopardy, Albanese said the agency called the mayor's office and asked for help in restoring the funds.

"We probably asked for Ald. (Margaret) Laurino's support," he said.

Indeed, city records show that Margaret Laurino amended the budget to add funding for the project.

She said she didn't recall any other specific case in which she used her aldermanic powers to provide funding for a community group but also said she would have done so if those organizations were losing funding.

She said she wasn't aware that her father had interceded on the group's behalf in 1993, but wasn't surprised. "He has over the years continually fought for funding not only for the Albany Park center but all the centers in the ward."

Albanese said Tucker heard of the project through word-of-mouth and was one of three applicants for the job. He said Tucker, whom he had known since he was a youth, has a degree in social science and was most qualified for the job paying $35,000 a year.

Albanese said he was aware that Tucker had a conviction, but he didn't know that it was for bribery.

Ald. Laurino said that she was aware that Tucker interviewed for the job in 1993, but she didn't recall how she knew that he was applying for the job. She said she didn't intervene on his behalf nor did she have any discussions with Tucker about the job.

Tucker said he never asked the Laurinos for help in landing the job with the center.

But Tucker said he did land his job on the Traffic Committee through his friendship with Anthony Laurino. He said he came to work every day during the six months in 1992 he worked for the committee.

"I go back a long, long time with Tony. He's a personal friend of mine. . . . He has a deep heart. He was very, very good."